TRIP REPORT: 90s Nite at Disneyland
This will be part one of three trip reports from my last trip to the Disneyland Resort.
All photos and videos on this page are © Loren R. Javier unless otherwise noted. Do not duplicate, modify or distribute without prior consent.
On March 7, Disneyland held its fourth Disneyland After Dark event. Titled "90s Nite," the event promised attendees that they could " relive fond Disney memories and party like it’s the ‘90s." Along with themed food, merchandise and entertainment, 90s Nite would re-imagine Disney Afternoon Avenue and offer encounter some of our favorite friends from the 90s.
On the promise of a re-imagined Disney Afternoon Avenue, character hunters from around the world bought their tickets in the hopes of seeing some of their favorite Disney Afternoon characters.
The check-in process went very smoothly. We got a fanny pack and, for those of us who are Annual Passholders, a button along with a souvenir map. Honestly, though, I don't know why Disneyland is stingy with its maps. I usually like to keep one as a souvenir and beat the other one up as I use it for the evening. Are they printed on gold? I had to keep gingerly looking at my map. The fanny pack was a really cute idea. This picture makes me feel like I am having lunch at The Max from Saved By The Bell.
We began the evening waiting for two of the rarer Disney Afternoon characters - Darkwing Duck and Don Karnage from TaleSpin. What was strange was that the event organizers picked an area near the Fantasyland Theatre that would need to be cleared for the fireworks. Why they picked that area was anybody's guess, but it almost amounted to a bloody riot when cast members tried to tell people that characters in that location would not be out until 10 pm that evening. I get that it is Disney's prerogative to do what it wants to do in planning these events, but they must have known that this would not have been a popular decision. In all honesty, it boiled down to bad planning here and left poor cast members only trying to do their jobs in vulnerable situations. Thankfully, they decided to bring Darkwing Duck out early for an hour.
After Darkwing Duck, we headed to see the Jungle Book Monkeys who were brightly colored like the ones from the original show from the 90s. They had them lit with black light to give that cool effect. What a treat to meet those guys.
Checking our social media, we saw that Mulan was meeting as Ping in Critter Country and, since its rare to meet her in this outfit, we headed over there. Ping was amazing!
After meeting Ping, we went back to meet Don Karnage over at the Fantasyland Theatre. By that time, the fireworks had cleared. I had meet Don Karnage several years ago, so it was so nice to see him again.
After Don Karnage, we went to what was inarguably the most popular meet of the night - Max dressed as Powerline. Max's Powerline outfit made its debut at Disney FanDaze at Disneyland Paris last June, but he was only part of the show Max Live! So, everybody was excited to meet Max in this outfit.
Alternating with Max was Goofy in his A Goofy Movie outfit.
I managed to capture this fun video of Goofy and Max together when they were switching out.
From there, we headed over to Adventureland where Baloo and Louie were meeting in their TaleSpin outfits! I was glad they were out there because I missed them when we were at Disney FanDaze.
And, finally, as we were heading out, we went to meet Chip 'n' Dale in their Rescue Rangers outfits. I don't know if I was delirious from being up for almost 24 hours, but I found it annoying when they kept moving the line from the Disneyland Opera House, while it was raining, to the meet-and-greet location they set up at the flagpole when it was not raining. We ended up switching locations 3 times and they didn't take into account people with mobility issues. Fortunately, I had friends in line that I could eventually catch up with, but I know there were some other people who were not too pleased to lose their place in line (but, to be fair, cast members were accommodating). Then, when I got to the front, they didn't want me to take a picture of the characters even though that's the only thing I wanted to do. I did it any way, but I hate having to argue. I didn't stand in line for an hour to get no picture.
All in all, I enjoyed 90s Nite. I thought they had a nice assortment of characters and, since I was with friends from around the world, it was wonderful hanging out with them. That said, Disneyland continues to be challenged with issues with these Disneyland After Dark events, whether that be overselling tickets to never understanding what the fans would like (for example, not be told you have to wait an hour before a character comes out) to merchandise selling out way too quickly (would it kill them to do a Limited Release pin?). Having two lines for the different characters like they did at Disney FanDaze would have gone a long way so you wouldn't feel like you were wasting your time only to meet a character you already met. The lines are way too long, especially for Powerline. Also, who's idea was it to schedule this event during one of the biggest conventions to come to Anaheim? I appreciate that Disneyland does these events and they are super fun, but its hard not to get frustrated when people pay so much for the tickets.